Who We Are

Principal Investigator

​Dr. Haldre Rogers​I am a tropical forest community ecologist and conservation biologist, motivated by a desire to understand and effectively address environmental problems. My research investigates the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem services, with a focus on mutualisms and food web dynamics in tropical forest ecosystems.

Dr. Evan Fricke​​Evan completed his PhD at the University of Washington, and immediately began his postdoctoral research position with Rice University/Iowa State University in February 2015. His interests are in community ecology, evolutionary ecology, and conservation. His work combines field experiments and quantitative models to understand the maintenance of biological diversity and predict species responses to global change. He tackles these interests through the lens of seed dispersal by studying the nature of the seed dispersal mutualism, its influence on species coexistence, and the consequences of its disruption. The long-term goals of his work are to provide empirical and conceptual advances that inform effective conservation of ecological interactions and ecosystem processes.

Dr. Hugo ThierryHugo received his PhD in Toulouse, France, studying the spatial temporal dynamics of the interactions between agricultural practices and pest population dynamics. He joined the Rogers Lab at the beginning of 2018. His work consists in developing spatially explicit models to study population dynamics, ecosystem services and conservation biology. In this project, his goal is develop management scenarios that effectively restore seed dispersal to the island of Guam.

Lab Manager

McKayla SpencerMcKayla completed her BS at University of Florida in 2012 and her MSc at Austin Peay State University in 2017 with a focus on viper physiology and behavior. Her interest have historically been in reptile ecology, behavior, and conservation. From 2013-2014 she was a member of the Brown Treesnake Research Team in Guam. She left Guam with a strong interest in pursuing research concerning invasive species impacts on native communities. She is excited to further her knowledge in community ecology with the Rogers Lab.

Graduate Students

Ann Marie Gawel​Ann Marie is planning to study novel ecosystems and conservation in the Mariana Islands. Part of her PhD thesis will focus on seed dispersal in non-native vertebrates in a system that has lost its native vertebrates (the island of Guam). She is also addressing social science questions in her thesis focused on how public perceptions and misperceptions affect conservation goals. She has a BA from the University of Chicago and MSc from the University of Guam. She joined the Rogers lab in August 2016 after working for four years as a regulatory biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Outside of her research, she enjoys hiking, outrigger-canoe-paddling, and raising a ruckus for social justice.

Brittany Cavazos​Brittany joined the Rogers Lab in August 2016 after receiving a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University. For her PhD she is interested in conservation biology and community ecology. More specifically, she plans to study mutualistic interactions, functional diversity, and intraspecific trait variation, as well as how these change under environmental stressors. She will begin her dissertation work in the Mariana Islands looking at intraspecific trait variation in plant communities.

Nick LyonNick started his MS at ISU in May 2016 and joined the Rogers Lab in August 2017. He is co-advised by Diane Debinski at Montana State. His interests are broadly focused in restoration ecology and conservation biology, with a strong emphasis on communication and collaboration with non-scientist partners. His research focuses on developing adaptive management strategies for active Midwestern pastureland aimed at controlling invasive tall fescue while also increasing habitat suitability for native pollinator species. He is also using species distribution modeling techniques to model the potential for range shifts of key floral resource plant species under different climatic scenarios.